The Wall
Is A World Issue
By Jessica Montell
09 July , 2004
Los Angeles Times
Last
week, Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the government to reroute
a small portion of the separation barrier it is building between Jews
and Palestinians on the grounds that it disproportionately harmed several
Palestinian villages and violated "fundamental rights" of
the people living in its path. At the same time, the court upheld the
legality of the fence itself, ruling that it is a legitimate security
measure.
But the timing of
the decision raised some eyebrows. The Israeli court knew when it ruled
that the International Court of Justice was scheduled, nine days later,
to issue a long-awaited opinion on the same subject, and many critics
felt the Israeli ruling was designed to mitigate the effect of that
upcoming decision.
This view was bolstered
by statements of Israeli officials such as Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom,
who said: "The fact that Israel is changing the route through an
internal decision shows we don't need any external involvement. Now
it is obvious to everyone that our judicial system can provide an appropriate
response to all Palestinian claims and complaints."
With all due respect
to my foreign minister, I believe it is a mistake to try to keep the
international community out. Given the highly politicized nature of
the fence, only the active involvement of the international community
can ensure that the barrier is constructed with regard to international
law and the welfare of the Palestinians. The Israeli ruling was an important
first step, but it will take substantial international pressure to ensure
that it is fairly carried out.
If constructed along
the current route, the fence will enclose more than 250,000 Palestinians
in 81 communities into dozens of isolated enclaves surrounded by barbed
wire, trenches and concrete and will separate farmers from vast tracts
of their land (altogether more than 200,000 acres).
Palestinians have
petitioned the court against many portions of this route; application
of the principle of proportionality as outlined by the court would require
voiding these portions as well.
Perhaps the greatest
test will come in Jerusalem, where Israel has already begun construction
along a route that is particularly disastrous. It follows the municipal
boundaries an arbitrary line drawn by Israel in 1967 which
in several cases run down the middle of busy streets. Now a 20-foot-high
concrete wall will separate tens of thousands of people from their schools,
jobs, families and healthcare.
Though Jerusalem
has been battered by suicide bombings and other attacks over the last
three years, I would hope that the Israeli court would rule that here
too the harm to innocent civilians is disproportional, and that other
security measures must be found.
If the Israeli court
does not, I hope that the international court will.
It is obvious to
anyone who studies the map that although the barrier was conceived for
security reasons, the route is dictated by politics. In Jerusalem, the
barrier divides Palestinians from each other, rather than separating
Israelis from Palestinians, and does so in order to strengthen Israel's
claim to a united Jerusalem as its capital.
On the West Bank,
the route snakes deep into occupied territory to include as many settlements
as possible on the Israeli side, in order to strengthen Israel's political
claim to them.
If the government
actually believes that the barrier is essential to protect Israel, it
must redraw the route to achieve that original intention: security rather
than a land grab. And if as I fear the government does
not voluntarily apply the high court's principle, the court must be
ready to apply its own ruling to the entire route of the barrier.
As Chief Justice
Aharon Barak wrote in the court's opinion: "Only a separation fence
built on a base of law will grant security to the state and its citizens.
Only a separation route based on the path of law will lead the state
to the security so yearned for."
Which leaves the
international community to say what was left unsaid: Only a route along
or inside Israeli territory can fulfill these criteria.
Jessica Montell
is executive director of B'Tselem, a Jerusalem-based organization that
monitors human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Copyright 2004 Los
Angeles Times